My Possessive Admirer

08. Fire

Bella's POV

"We are extremely sorry for your inconvenience ma'am. Our haunted house passes were given only to a few people before Halloween to test it out. Please go ahead enjoy your tour. We really need your feedback," One manager looking staff member came out and asked me and Becky to continue our tour inside the haunted house.

I looked at Becky. She seemed to be looking at something with all her attention. "Uh, we'll let you know!" I dragged Becky with me to a corner. "Becky, what are you looking at for so long?"

"Bella let's go finish the tour. I don't wanna miss it because of that crazy old hag."

"You seriously wanna continue after what happened?" I looked at the place where Becky's eyes were stuck a while ago. "Becky! Seriously!" I saw that she was looking at a group of boys who also came to visit the haunted house like us. "So what? Can you let that go already?"

She abruptly freed her hand from mine which kinda surprised me. The shock definitely showed in my face too. It's been so long since we've been good friends but she never behaved like this before. Looking at my facial expressions she held my hands back "Oh Bella! I'm sorry! I didn't wanna ruin our night you know. Come let's enjoy the place."

"Mmmh!" I tried my best not to show any changes in my behaviour and replied to her normally. "Maybe she guessed that your name is Isabella you know! Sometimes you can tell people's names by just looking at them." Becky said while we walked in a dark pathway. "This is the first time I heard that you can guess an individual's name by just looking at them." "Yeah sometimes you have these common names and you can just guess their names by looking at them. Maybe she guessed yours too." "Could be..." I acquiesced without giving much thought about it.

My mind still couldn't get over the sudden changes in Becky's response. We both entered inside a mirror room at the end of the dark hallway. The room was not very bright inside. I read the instructions at the entrance. We had to find the right end in the mirror room. If we choose the wrong route we would end up in a cage.

I heard noises behind us. It was probably the group of boys who came after us. When I looked back I saw the boys were looking at us, laughing and whispering with each other. "Retards," I said under my breath. Becky's expressions were blank. Usually, she's the one who gets all fired up in these situations. But it felt like she didn't care at all this time. I felt weirded out by her. I decided to ask her what happened after we get out of this place. I went a bit forward and saw there was a way out and the gate was covered with black curtains. I looked back to tell Becky but realized that she was gone.

"Becky!" I called her name but got no response. Why did she leave me like this and go ahead? I couldn't think of any reason behind all this.

"Becky?" I tried calling her again but there was no sign of her.

"Are you searching for someone?" I saw a guy was approaching me, "How about you call my name instead? I'll respond to you!" He smirked.

"Excuse me, I'm not interested," I tried to get past him. "Where are you going? I'm still talking to you!" Suddenly he caught my hand and gave a sharp push. I tripped and my head slammed on the glass behind me. I gasped in pain. I felt a crippling affliction inside my head. It was the same place where I got hurt last time. I saw the guy was approaching me with hungry eyes. I tried but couldn't gather the strength to get up. I had no other way other than screaming for help.

All of a sudden, a hand pulled him behind the curtains in an instant. I felt like I heard his shrill voice yelling for help but it stopped in a second with a loud thump. I stood up somehow leaning on the glass with my shaky legs, afraid of what was happening. I gathered my strength and started running towards the entrance from where we entered. I wanted to get out of the place as quickly as possible. But it was puzzling. I couldn't remember which way I came in from. I heard footsteps behind me. I looked back to see if anyone was following me. I started walking fast again. Suddenly I bumped into someone without realising it. He swiftly turned me around in his gentle embrace and covered my eyes with a blindfold. I was about to scream but his calm and soothing voice stopped me.

“Isabella...” I felt an untamed sensation raging inside me as he whispered my name in my ears.

“Don’t fight it...It's me” He said kissing my neck, alluring all the senses with his blazing passion.

I pleaded for an answer whilst being helplessly caged in his dominance, “Who are you? Are you the Dracula, everyone has been talking about?”

“Hahaha,” he let out a soft chuckle mesmerizing my ears, “No Bella...I’m your greatest nightmare...” "Nightmare?"

My body shook as he let me go. I quickly took off the blindfold from my eyes. I failed to see his face as walked away from me. "No, wait! Please don't leave...." I implored, "Don't go please!" I followed him from behind but he suddenly disappeared into the shadows. I saw I was back at the entrance where I started from. In hindsight, he knew exactly where I would go so he brought me back to the entrance because I was lost.

"Why did you leave? Come back! Please!" I sat down on the floor crying. I was feeling weak. Is he the one who gave me flowers? Wrote poetry for me? Cared for me, saved me from danger? Then why did he mention such words that pierced my heart and broke it into pieces? Why the pain in my aching heart was more than the pain in my head? I realized my visions were getting blurry. But before I could do anything I lost my senses.

I found myself lying down in an ambulance's bed after I regained my consciousness. I got up panicking. Becky was standing near me.

"Bella you woke up?" She seemed worried.

"Becky, how did I get here?" She seemed to be back to her old self again.

"Look!" I looked at the place she pointed at.

"Fire!" I saw the whole haunted house was burning in flames. A group of firefighters were trying to bring the fire under control.

"How did this happen?" I asked being shocked.

"I was stuck in a cage for taking a wrong route. Then suddenly the fire alarm started buzzing. One of the staff freed me and carried you out as well. How did you become unconscious?" Becky explained everything that happened.

"Someone followed me inside...." I said looking blankly at the fire.

"Then you should have beat the s**t out of that guy!" She mumbled in irritation.

"I never said it was a guy Becky..." I looked back at Becky with mistrust in my eyes.

"Oh, I just reckoned it's possibly a guy!" Becky said with a nervous chuckle on her face.

"Where is my bag?" I inquired ignoring what I just realized.

"It's probably over there Bella..." She said glancing inside the backspace of the ambulance.

I grabbed my bag quickly, "I'm gonna go home, Becky. I'll see you tomorrow in class."

I walked away from her without even looking back at her.